Lauren Bowker, leads T H E U N S E E N; a luxury design house that integrates Biological Chemical and Electronic Science into fashion through materials.
Having graduated from the Manchester School of Art with her award winning creation – a Carbon Emission sensing ink named PdCI2 – Bowker went on to study printed textiles at the Royal College of Art, London, where there she developed a further spectrum of multifaceted chromic colour-changing inks, animated by the common world stimuli that one would experience but not with the eye.
This artistic and technological breakthrough substance has been welcomed and praised amongst many materials industries from the aeronautics world to the couture realm, all manifested under the name PHNX. T H E U N S E E N philosophy believes technology IS magic: their vision is to create a world of seamlessly captivating science; through exquisite couture, luxury products and opulent materials. Now, portrayed to the world in the form in provoking pieces created with mystical and magical materials, fostering extraordinarily unique experiences as the onlooker witnesses the interplay between the elements of the world and fashion.
TechStyle is now exhibiting new technological innovations are poised to have a profound effect on the future of the fashion industry. The inherent synergy between art and technology has always been a catalyst for invention and new mediums of design, now in fashion, T H E U N S E E N is also displaying how technology is changing the way people are interacting with clothing, as an art form and as functional arsenal.
Now T H E U N S E E N, after its debut launch at the London Fashion Week show rooms of SS15 (September 2014) based in Somerset house, is now taking their version of techstyle to the TechStyle exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston between the 6th March – 10th July 2016. The original capsule sculptures that were one display at LFW – The AIR trio – will be the main feature of the exhibition in Gallery 158 along with their collection of Magik Artefacts available to buy from the MFA Boston store and online.
So far the MFA Boston exhibition is displaying 3 different designers (including T H E U N S E E N) offering an immersive, multi-sensory experience as one interacts with prototype of designs that engage with the mind, body, and sense with a focus on aesthetic innovation.
For the couture capsule collection that comprises the AIR ensemble, T H E U N S E E N developed a form of wind reactive ink that changes colour upon contact with the air around us, an exclusive material art form supported by Swarovski Gemstones exhibiting an interactive performance of the garments revealing otherwise unseen turbulence of the elements surrounding us in our daily environment.
For Swarovski Gems; T H E U N S E E N has exemplified an understanding of thehidden properties of the Gem stone, together with emerging future technologies in the world of material science. In a glimpse into the bespoke relationship between the Swarovski Gem stone and T H E U N S E E N was manifested in their investigationto explore the properties of the Gemstone from new angles covering colour, materials, application and future visions.
Research resulted in a true collaboration between T H E U N S E E N and SWAROVSKI in the form of a jewelled head piece. In the same essence of T H E U N S E E N’s revealing relationship with ethereal stimuli, SWAROVSKI crafted over 4000 Black Spinel stones – enhanced but T H E U N S E E N Magik (PHNX) – to make an illuminating headpiece: the interaction existing between the Spinel stone – the material composition being similar to that which is found in human bone – and the compatible human head, a parallel which enabled each stone to act as an individual conduction insulator, absorbing the radiation energy from the brain. The effect was that one was able to witness the brain activity and energy loss with the visualisation of the Spinel stones as they changed colours in gradient, from Black, Orange, Red, Green, Blue, to Purple. It was discovered that throughout the day the colours of the gems evolve in a pattern which mimics brain activity, meaning that when worn, the headpiece becomes a reflection of the inner human thought.
The SWAROVSKI-U N S E E N collaboration is a beautiful example of the way in which reactive chemical technology can open our eyes to a new realm of experience and a new reception of the elements. The way in which heat, wind, electrical charge, pollution, and many more environmental components can now be experienced has been revolutionised as we are beginning to see the beautiful patterns of their behaviour, manifest in morphing iridescent colour before our very eyes.
T H E U N S E E N has been receiving many awards for its revolutionary technology since its inception: the label has received acknowledgements and honours such as: The British Council champion Lauren and T H E U N S E E N as this year’s creative entrepreneur; The Technology strategy board and British Fashion Council award for digital innovation in fashion; Worshipful Clothworkers award for innovation.
The next step of their journey was in creating a luxury accessories collection made solely in England treated with their signature Magik AIR ink, giving vivid flushes of colour in beautiful ways, tailored to the articles.
This is truly a beautiful and mesmerising convergence where the wondrous world of science meets fashion design.
Opening our eyes to a new world of material experience.
Making the unseen, seen.
The cleverer cousin of the AIR trio EIGHTHSENSE is a coded couture piece, fashioned from materials that are remotely respondent to real-time digital data, through pattern shift, hue and colour change. An unseen force or ‘Aura’ is outwardly emitted from every human being as an electromagnetic energy, there’s wavelengths can bet detected, and through certain lenses, can be seen in colour: red portrays anger, nerves and anxiety of the wearer; green reflects teaching, sociality and people; blue reveals calming, truthfulness and peace; while white mirrors an inner state of sensitivity, intuitiveness and psychic ability.
